George Bernard Shaw

Bevin’s proposals for a western European union? [Shaw: ] I do not see what else Mr. Bevin can do under the circumstances than play for what union he can get in Europe or elsewhere out of politically uneducated electorates and pseudo-statesmen who do not know what their shibboleths mean. Meanwhile he must borrow what he can from the U. S. A. in view of the general European bilking that followed 1918, and the frequent prodigious bilk that is politely called devaluation of the franc. Poincaré over again! – 2.) Do you believe some measure of material prosperity in western Europe will halt the spread of Communism? [Shaw:] No. I believe that the spread of Communism will enormously increase the material prosperity of the world if civilization be not wrecked by childish rulers playing with atomic bombs and the like. Even the atomic may be superseded by the discovery of a poison gas lighter than air, which will kill men without destroying their works. That would civilize us if anything can. – 3.) Do you agree with Mr. Churchill that the western powers ‘should bring matters to a head’ with the Soviet Union before the Russians perfect the atom bomb? [Shaw:] That depends on what the head is. A thick head may mean war. A clear head may save the situation, for a while at least. The clearest head available at present is Stalin’s; but no man is more dangerously misunderstood both here and in the U. S. S. R. where his official supremacy is in fact as precarious that we in the west should give him all the support and countenance in our power. Stalin is a Communist in principle; but so was Trotsky, who declared him to be a vulgar ugly upstart poisoner, and would have had him shot had he supplanted him in the Politbureau. The issue between them was between Fabian tactics, a British invention (called H. F. P. in Russia) and instantaneous catastrophic universal economic revolution throughout the world: a flat impossibility. It is for us to back Stalin as an arch Fabian against the world, including Russia. – 4.) Do you feel the ‘straight speaking’ to Russia now in vogue in Britain and the U. S. A. will prevent war between the East and West by forcing Soviet Russia to delay or halt her world expansion policy? [Shaw:] There has been no straight speaking except from Stalin, who stands for Socialism In A Single Country as against Imperialist expansion. He knows that Soviet Russia cannot afford another war, and has to beware of warmongers in Russia as well (or ill) as in America and the British Commonwealth. He has to deal with Churchillian Tory Democracy, alias Fascism or the annexation of Fabianism for the benefit of the private owners of the natural sources of production, and Labour Party chiefs like ours, who are actually to the Right of Mr Churchill with their senseless denunciations of Communism as such, and of Totalitarianism, which is Anarchism; for a law that is not totalitarian is no law. The real mischief is the silly notion that constitutional policy can be totalitarian. All civilisation begins and endures with Communism. Nobody proposes to decommunise our streets, bridges, water, police, courts of justice and the rest, nor to abolish Cobdenist free trade utterly. Without Communism we should starve. Without Cobdenism we should stagnate. Without Fascism betwixt and between the transition to Socialism would not work. There is no such animal as a totalitarian Socialist, Individualist, Democrat, Tory, or Whig: there are only human beings, described by Carlyle as mostly fools. But I must bid you gooday, as I doubt whether you understand a word I am saying [...]“..

The thing will be called a Disarmament Conference; but it will really be an Armament Conference playing Beggar my Neighbor. Since Russia called our pacifist bluff at Geneva by offering to disarm in earnest if the others would, and they all instantly refused to speak to her, even when Mr. Kellogg promptly called it again and was humbugged by the Self Defence reservation, our Pacifists are only crying Peace where there is no peace. Signor Mussolini, who openly promises glory to the Italians without remonstrance, is franker and less alarming.” Shaw began his writing career on April 21, 1894, when his play Arms and the Man, which explores the futility of war, opened to great acclaim in London. His foremost international success, it represented “the true beginning of [his] recognition as a popular dramatist,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Likened by some to Shakespeare, Shaw combined satire, comedy and social criticism in his more than 50 plays. His famous stage works include Saint Joan (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925), Man and Superman and Pygmalion, the inspiration for the popular musical My Fair Lady. World War I prompted Shaw to abandon the creation of socially critical drama, and instead write criticism about the horrors of the period. During the war Shaw published a controversial pamphlet, Common Sense about the War, suggesting that both Great Britain and the Allies were as responsible as the Germans committing atrocities, and argued for negotiation and peace. He also gave numerous anti-war speeches that provoked much domestic criticism. In 1928, Shaw authored The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, and by the 1930s he had self-identified as a communist. Shaw’s strong opinions on the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of World War I and his published comments on these matters likely led to the frequent soliciting of his opinion. In 1922, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy signed the Five Powers Treaty at the Washington Conference, which limited future naval growth. President Calvin Coolidge invited the signatories to revisit the subject in 1927, however, France and Italy declined, leaving Japan, Great Britain and the United States to meet at the Geneva Naval Conference and discuss naval limitations. However, the parties failed to reach an agreement, which led to a third meeting, the London Naval Conference of 1930, at which time Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy attempted to discuss disarmament and revise the terms of the Five Power Treaty of 1922. Penned more than seven months after the effective date of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, co-named for American Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg (1856-1937), which called for peaceful settlement of future disputes between its original signatories, France, the United States and Germany, and later the United Kingdom, Soviet Union and other countries who agreed to adhere to its principles. Our manuscript, in which Shaw mentions Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) by name, illustrates the playwright’s unabashed cynicism regarding international affairs, but also his misguided support for Mussolini and other dictators like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. Beggar-my-Neighbour is a British card game which is sometimes used to describe the mutually destructive nature of protectionist policies. Folded and in very fine condition..

But there is no evidence that they have any such resolution, or that they trust one another’s pacifist professions.” Shaw began his writing career on April 21, 1894, when his play Arms and the Man, which explores the futility of war, opened to great acclaim in London. His foremost international success, it represented “the true beginning of [his] recognition as a popular dramatist,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Likened by some to Shakespeare, Shaw combined satire, comedy and social criticism in his more than 50 plays. His famous stage works include Saint Joan (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925), Man and Superman and Pygmalion, the inspiration for the popular musical My Fair Lady. World War I prompted Shaw to abandon the creation of socially critical drama, and instead write criticism about the horrors of the period. During the war Shaw published a controversial pamphlet, Common Sense about the War, suggesting that both Great Britain and the Allies were as responsible as the Germans committing atrocities, and argued for negotiation and peace. He also gave numerous anti-war speeches that provoked much domestic criticism. In 1928, Shaw authored The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, and by the 1930s he had self-identified as a communist. Shaw’s strong opinions on the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of World War I and his published comments on these matters likely led to the frequent soliciting of his opinion. In 1922, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy signed the Five Powers Treaty at the Washington Conference, which limited future naval growth. President Calvin Coolidge invited the signatories to revisit the subject in 1927, however, France and Italy declined, leaving Japan, Great Britain and the United States to meet at the Geneva Naval Conference and discuss naval limitations. However, the parties failed to reach an agreement, which led to a third meeting, the London Naval Conference of 1930, at which time Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy attempted to discuss disarmament and revise the terms of the Five Power Treaty of 1922. Penned more than seven months after the effective date of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, co-named for American Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg (1856-1937), which called for peaceful settlement of future disputes between its original signatories, France, the United States and Germany, and later the United Kingdom, Soviet Union and other countries who agreed to adhere to its principles. Our manuscript, in which Shaw mentions Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) by name, illustrates the playwright’s unabashed cynicism regarding international affairs, but also his misguided support for Mussolini and other dictators like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. Beggar-my-Neighbour is a British card game which is sometimes used to describe the mutually destructive nature of protectionist policies. Folded and in very fine condition..

- III: "No: if I were to add ... chairtaking to my platform activities, it would finish me altogether. Besides, it is very bad economy for the Circle to waste a star speaker on the chair. It is hard enough to get him one; and when you do, you had better got the whole evening out of him [...]" (December 20, 1922). - Accompaned by a typed letter signed by Shaw's secretary, Blanche Patch..

And when I throw your letters with oaths into the fire (half a dozen others having been busy cleaning out my loose cash just then) you conclude that my sensitive soul is wounded by your proposal to put it into a play, and modulate your moans accordingly. The reason your play is no use is that people dont [!] go to the theatre to hear that sort of thing. If they want Shaw (which is not invariably the case) they go to headquarters for it, and not to Bath. But that secondhand literary stuff is no use anyhow, no matter how you disguise it. Write a play about a superior young lady, who will not allow anyone to play jazz in her presence, or anything commoner than Bach, and who is revolted by the vulgarity of the cinema: in short, a first rate snob who thinks she is a ten foot highbrow. She meets and loves and is loved by a mistery man who is enormously rich, and loads with her presents, and sympathizes with her fastidiousness. Where, you will say, is the drama here? Very obviously the enormously rich connoisseur is Charlie Chaplin, unrecognizable without the moustache and bowler hat and baggy trousers, though he has a strange sense of having been haunted by his eyes. You can make another The Likes of Er out of that: at least I could. I canT [!] write any more: it puts up my temperature. G. B. S." - With printed address..